This invention is related to a system and method for providing information about the usage of Internet web sites and pages.
The Internet is increasingly becoming a commercially driven environment with web sites of increasing complexity, both in breadth and depth. Information about the number and type of users who are accessing a given web site or page is important both to the individual users themselves, and to third parties for determining the viability of various web page designs and layouts, the computing power and bandwidth required to support the web site, etc. Such information is also useful for applications such as Internet site catalogs.
Various techniques have been employed to determine who is using a particular Internet site or page. Many conventional systems, such as counters that are incremented whenever a particular web site or page is accessed, provide basic frequency of usage information. However, such systems fail to address a number of shortcomings. A first problem with conventional systems is that user information collected in the normal manner does not distinguish between one user accessing a given page many times or many users each accessing the same page once. A second problem is that conventional counting techniques provide no indication of how long users spend looking at a given page before leaving. Thus, techniques of the prior art provide only a limited amount of information with limited accuracy.
Additional information which is valuable, both to the web site operator and to Internet users, is the number and type (i.e. demographics) of users who have viewed or who are currently viewing a web site or page. A third problem with conventional techniques then arises since they do not provide an adequate mechanism for gathering and presenting this data to the users or third parties. In particular, while access counters can determine when a user accesses a given page, they provide no information about how long the user""s attention is directed to the page or when the user xe2x80x9cleavesxe2x80x9d by accessing a different web page or site. Also, access counters do not collect information about the type of user, and therefore cannot report this information. Furthermore, due to proxy servers and other possible caching techniques, user accesses to web pages may be served locally without a user actually accessing the desired web site. Such hits will, thus, not be recorded by the web server.
Because of the limitations in the accuracy and scope of collected information, a fourth problem related to conventional information gathering techniques is that an Internet user cannot easily determine in real time what web sites and pages are popular with other users with similar backgrounds and interests. A fifth problem is that a user can not determine which other users are simultaneously viewing the same web page or site. A sixth problem is that, while a user may be able to view a directory or xe2x80x9cmapxe2x80x9d indicating other web sites and/or pages which are linked or otherwise related to the one they are currently viewing, conventional systems do not permit the user to know how many users are currently at the neighboring pages, to filter the map to show sites with, e.g., a minimum number of active users, with users having particular characteristics, etc., or to determine which links are most popular with users having particular characteristics.
Moreover, while information about frequency of site or page visits is used to compile lists of popular sites, the catalogs are limited to grouping sites by content. A seventh problem, then, is that there is presently no mechanism to permit a user to determine xe2x80x9crelevantxe2x80x9d sites or pages according to the characteristics of the users of those sites or pages, as opposed to its contents.
An eighth problem with conventional applications is that they also do not permit a user to enter into a real-time chat with other users who are viewing the same page. While some real-time chat capabilities are present, they require the user IDs to be known in advance and are concerned only with whether a user is connected to the Internet, not what page or site they are presently accessing.
For example, the ICQ program, from ICQ, Inc., is an Internet chat program in which subscribing members are assigned a user ID. When a member logs onto the Internet, their ID is transmitted to the ICQ system. Individual users can compile xe2x80x9cbuddy listsxe2x80x9d of other ICQ users and are informed when one of those IDs has logged on or off. However, this feature is limited only to IDs which are known in advance. ICQ users are also able to communicate with each other via, e.g., chat sessions. However, apart from lists of users in various xe2x80x9cchat roomsxe2x80x9d, no information is provided about the activities of the users in general, only whether they are logged in to the Internet.
Another Internet application which purports to provide information about on-line users is the ALEXA application, available from ALEXA INTERNET. The Alexa service works in conjunction with a user""s web browser and displays a separate window on the user""s computer screen which contains information about the web site currently being viewed and suggests related sites. The Alexa system also tracks a user""s usage patterns and uses this information to determine which sites will be of most interest to the individual user, as well as compiling statistical information about the number of Alexa users who have visited a particular web site. However, none of the aforementioned problems are adequately addressed by that system. While Alexa provides some information about web sites, the presented tracking information is merely another variant of the conventional xe2x80x9chitxe2x80x9d counter. No information is presented about the numbers or types of other users who may be viewing the same web site or page at the same time, nor are mechanisms provided for one user to communicate with other users who are in the same location.
Thus, there are multiple problems and shortcomings in the prior art as noted above.
These and other deficiencies in conventional systems are addressed by the system and method of the instant invention in which a user""s Internet software is augmented, e.g., by means of a stand alone application, to obtain information about the user and also to obtain information about each web page the user accesses. The user can be asked or required to provide certain biographical information, such as age and gender, during a registration process. The amount of active time a user spends at each page is also determined. When the user jumps to another web page, the new page information and the determined duration of time spent at the previous site are transferred to a central server. Some or all of the additional biographical information can also be provided to the central server. It should be noted that a user may have several open browsers. Any page change in one of them results in a transaction or notification to the server.
The central server compiles the provided information in real time memory structures, such as dynamic memory-based hash stables, and possibly also in disk-based log files. The information is processed to determine the current xe2x80x9chotxe2x80x9d Internet sites or pages at or near real-time, the popular sites on a historical basis, i.e., over the past N days or hours, various usage trends, etc. This information can be presented to users in the form of, e.g., a histogram displayed on the user""s screen, and integrated with link maps, directory information, and other navigation tools.
An individual user can query the central system to determine whether other users are currently viewing the same page and/or site, and if so, be provided with how many such users exist and their profiles. The query can be general or limited to users meeting certain characteristics according to customized or predefined queries. In this manner, a user can determine the general profile of others accessing the same web site and also identify web pages which.are popular with others having a profile similar to the user""s. These queries can also be logged by the central server. In a similar manner, a user can identify related or linked sites according to the number and profile of the present users. Preferably, when a user enters a new web page or site, they are automatically provided information about other users accessing the same web page or site.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a user can communicate with one or more other users accessing the same site at the same time, even if the ID of those users is not known in advance. In one technique, a user can initiate a real-time chat with other site visitors. Prospective chat targets can be identified by querying the central server. Preferably, before a query is processed, the user is required to enter additional information, such as areas of interest, profession, etc. This information can be used to build user profiles, identify compatible or selected chat targets, and, during chat initiation, can be presented to the contacted parties to provide information about the initiating party.
According to the present invention, a user can leave xe2x80x9cnotesxe2x80x9d in a page, as if the page contained a virtual bulletin board. When another user visits the page, they will be notified that a note exists and will be able to communicate with the note owner.
Alternatively, a user can search for other users, regardless of what site they are in, by executing a dynamic search according to specified demographic search parameters. Only users that match the specified search criteria will be identified. The user can then communicate with these users.
The usage information can be further processed on the basis of user biographical information to generate usage profiles for a given site or page. The usage profiles include the number of users who have visited a given site and/or page, when they visited, the active duration of the visit, the profiles of the visiting users, etc. This information is made available to third parties, such as advertisers, users, and site owners and operators directly and via a query system.
According to another aspect of the invention, the system provides for xe2x80x9cpeople based navigation.xe2x80x9dAs an extension of the link map, the system can generate and present to a user a list of pages which are related to the one a user is presently viewing.
The site usage information can also be compiled to determine popular xe2x80x9csurfxe2x80x9d patterns originating from a particular page. The patterns can be used to identify the most popular next destination(s) for users, further focused according to demographic information.